Underneath the Willow Tree
by Liseli Canis
Summary: With a small squeak she stumbled backwards, her back smacking against the tree's trunk. A boy around her age stared at her with a bored expression. She recognized him from the 'dead-last' bunch. Nara Shikamaru.
1. I

"Ugly!"

"Forehead Girl!"

Their words still rang into little Haruno Sakura's ears. Tears poured out of her green eyes and splashed against her small fists. Sniffling loudly she brushed them away, wetting her sleeves. She was sitting under the willow tree near Konoha's playground, watching the other children laughing and playing tag.

She wanted to join them but they'd just tease her again. Even Uzumaki Naruto, the goofy kid from Academy was with the class slackers, having fun. She stared at him, noting how big his smile was. Her mother had warned her not to play with him, and Sakura, being the obedient child she was, listened. She didn't question why and thought it to be unfair. As obnoxious and loud as he was, he always brightened up classes with his pranks. Not that she'd ever admit it out loud to anyone.

She was so focused on him that she didn't notice the shadow approaching her.

"You're in my spot."

With a small squeak she stumbled backwards, her back smacking against the tree's trunk. A boy around her age stared at her with a bored expression. She recognized him from the 'dead-last' bunch. Nara Shikamaru.

"Oi, oi. I'm not going to hurt you. A man should never hurt a woman." Shikamaru blinked down at the girl staring at him with wide green eyes. "You're...Sakura, right?" His eyes flicked to her forehead for the briefest second.

Sakura's right hand flew up to her forehead, brushing desperately at her bangs to cover it. She retreated to the other side of the tree, peeking around the trunk. "S-so what?! Are you going to make fun of me?!"

He plopped down on the grass and folded his arms under his head. "Too troublesome." He scanned the skies and smiled. "Besides, watching clouds is better than making fun of a girl." Turning his head slightly, he studied her, his brows knitted into a frown. "I don't get it."

"E-eh?" Sakura held her hands in front of her mouth, unsure of what he meant. She had half a mind to run home and hide under her covers where no one would see her.

"Why are you hiding from everyone? Don't you want to play with them?"

Biting her lip, she turned her head away facing the other children again. "I...I do but..." her voice trailed off and she mumbled something he didn't quite catch.

Sitting up, he cupped a hand over his ear, "Haaah? I can't hear you."

"...ead..." she mumbled again.

Resisting the urge to groan, he stood up and inched closer to her. "Y'know, it's troublesome to comprehend anything you say when you mumble like that." She fidgeted a little, twiddling her thumbs. When she opened her mouth to speak again he held a hand up. "Stop. If it's too much to say, you don't have to." He yawned and stretched out over the grass, cracking his knuckles. "You can join me if you want, the shade's nice and the sky is full of clouds."

"Clouds?"

"Mm. See?" He pointed up at the sky, grinning at her.

"I know what clouds are, but why would you watch them?"

Raising a thin eyebrow, Shikamaru stared at the pink-haired girl. She was busy staring at the sky, her brows scrunched up like she was looking for something that wasn't there.

"..." Reaching out, he grabbed her hand and pulled.

"Waaah!" She gracelessly fell into his lap. Shaking her head to reorient herself, she found herself face to face with Shikamaru. His expression hadn't changed much, except for a faint blush creeping across his cheeks due to their close proximity. Gasping, she scuttled to the side and just sat there beside him, not daring to meet his eyes.

With a cough, he pointed at the sky again, this time to a sizeable cloud floating up there. "Okay, see that one? To me it looks like a sailboat in the high seas. See the mast?"

She was silent for a moment, studying the shape. In the end she gave up. "I don't see anything. Just a cloud."

"Use your imagination." And on in went until the sun was nearly setting. She had finally listened to him and seen the clouds in her own way. Some of the things she had seen had made him smile. A cat, a fire-breathing dragon, and a lion. And while they had talked, he found himself quite enjoying her company, something rare for him. He contemplated this as he watched the pink-haired girl dozing next to him.

Soon he heard their parents calling them and he nudged her awake. "Sakura. Your mom is here. And mine will start nagging at me if we don't get moving."

Yawning, she slowly sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Myah?" She looked over the playground and saw her mom standing there with another woman, hands on her hips, impatiently tapping her foot as she waited for her. "Oh! Uhm…" she stood up and picked off the bits of grass that had attached themselves to her beige pants. "C-can we watch clouds here tomorrow too, Shikamaru?"

He blinked at her and a small smirk formed on his lips. Waving his hand, he began walking towards his waiting mother, "Anytime."


	2. II

"I heard you and Ino are rivals now." she tilted her head back to find Shikamaru standing over her, looking as bored as ever, a hand placed on the willow tree's trunk. Rolling her eyes, Sakura patted the grass next to her and he laid down next to her with no further comment.

"We both like Sasuke-kun, and only one of us can have him," she said, lazily stretching her arms over her head. "And I have the advantage since he's on my team."

"Hn."

Rolling over onto her stomach, she poked his shoulder. "It must be troublesome to have her on yours."

He snorted. "I can't really complain. It's a tradition. Our parents were on the same team too. The Ino-Shika-Cho combo." He tried to close his eyes, but it was so difficult to do so when you can feel the stare of someone drilling into your face. He cracked one eye open. "I thought you were going to let me relax here and watch some clouds."

"Did I?" That tart had the audacity to smile like the devil she was. "I'm just curious about that formation."

Hm…how to explain it to her? With a sigh, he sat up to face her. "I can't get too detailed, since it's a team based on each of our clans' abilities. I'm sure Ino has told you about hers?"

She shook her head. "Nuh-uh. She was always tight-lipped about that." She absently scratched at her left arm. "Which I considered weird because she's usually such a blabbermouth."

Resting his chin on his left hand, Shikamaru plucked a few blades of grass and let them be carried away by the wind. "Ino and I are to act as Chouji's support. That's the short version of it." One blade stuck to her hair and he absent-mindedly picked it up, brushing her hair away from her face.

Inhaling sharply, she laid her down so he wouldn't see her face. Not that he needed to see it to know it was red. Her ears gave her away. "I-I see. That's pretty interesting."

"You do realize that you can't watch clouds if you're facing dirt, right?"

"Shut up…"


	3. III

'If only I had tried harder…then maybe…' Sakura curled herself tighter, rocking back and forth on her heels. Even the tree where she had spent countless hours in her youth with Shikamaru held no comfort. It was because of her that four out of the five-man squad had been hurt. It was because of her own weakness, of her own selfishness that they had all almost died.

That's how Shikamaru found her, weeping and snotting all over herself. He didn't say anything when he sat down next to her. She couldn't stand it.

It took her a few tries to say something without a hiccup interrupting her words. "Aren't you mad at me? It's my fau-"

"If you're going to blame someone, blame me," his voice was flat, making her flinch. She watched him curl his right hand into a fist and glare at nothing in particular. "Ironic how they thought I was Chuunin material and I nearly get my entire team killed on our first mission. Meanwhile I…" he held up his left hand, his index finger heavily bandaged. "Escape with minor injuries and get saved by Temari of the Sand."

Placing her hand over his injured one, Sakura stared Shikamaru in the eyes, tears still streaming down her face. "I could never blame you. Even if the mission failed, you're alive. We…" she hung her head. "We just need to get stronger. We'll find Sasuke and then…"

"Yeah. I'll make him get on his knees and apologize to you."


	4. IV

Sakura stared out the window to the cloudy blue skies over Konoha. Not even a week ago she and the remainder of the Konoha 12 had been promoted to Chuunin, save for Neji who had advanced on ahead to Jounin. However, though she had advanced, her training under Tsunade was far from over.

Lately, her days had been too busy for her to spend much time with her other friends, aside from Ino who still occasionally came to train with her. Still…her green eyes wandered, until they came to rest on one particular direction. From here, she couldn't see the playground that was home to the willow tree, but she wondered if one particular lazy shinobi was lying under its shade, enjoying the summer breeze shaping the clouds he loved to watch so much.

Unbeknownst to the pink-haired medic, she had been right. Shikamaru was stretched out under the tree, but he wasn't cloud watching, no. He was trying to nap. His day had been busy with finishing up the reports of his teammates and former classmates on their promotions and escorting Temari to the Land of Fire's border. That had prompted some teasing from Ino about his relationship with the fan-wielder. He had nothing to say about that other than 'we're friends, just like you and Sakura are.'

That seemed to quiet the blonde down for a bit before she and Chouji went off to work on a new technique together. He would have gone with them but…he was just so tired. Groaning, Shikamaru sat up and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Napping here wasn't that good of an idea anyway. The children were a little too loud for his liking.

He watched them for a bit and wondered how many had been Haruno Sakura's patients in the past week. Lady Tsunade had been keeping her in the hospital all this time to continue her training. Turning his gaze towards the hospital, he wondered if she was looking to the outside world too.


	5. V

When they came back from the Land of Wind, Sakura seemed different to him. They met each other in the hospital, her exiting a patient's room that he presumes is one of her teammates. Quite possibly Kakashi. Anytime he ever took a mission with his old genin team back in the day, he always ended up here, looking a little worse for wear. Shikamaru knew this time it wouldn't be much different. However, Sakura doesn't greet him like she normally does, instead she merely glanced at him and motioned for him to follow her outside. He found it odd, but didn't comment on it, only nodded and obliged.

He fell into step next to her as she trudged through the city until they are back at the playground. They don't speak at all and she sinks onto a swing and she drags her sandals through the dirt. He followed suit and took the swing next to hers, watching as the sky changed from blue to shades of red and gold as the sun began to sink on the horizon, painting a few sparse clouds in pinks and purples. It's almost peaceful until she begins talking.

"I met one of them. The Akatsuki." She looked troubled, almost pained and he stayed silent, waiting for her to continue. She doesn't, but he knows that she isn't finished. So he gives her more time. They are quiet for a while, the only sound they hear is the distant bustle of the city and the creak of their swings.

Sakura finally sighs and continues her story. "That Akatsuki…he called himself Sasori." Shikamaru quickly inhaled a sharp breath. He had heard of him through Temari's brother, Kankuro. Akasuna no Sasori had been the Kazekage's older brother's inspiration to become a puppet master and had established some of Sunagakure's puppet troops. In fact, Kankuro's own puppets had once been Sasori's prototypes. "Kaka-sensei was injured, I heard from Naruto that he developed a new jutsu with his Sharingan, but he overused it. That idiot." She laughed, it was hollow. She rubbed her arms together as if she was cold. "I nearly died."

"What happened?" he asked. Sakura stood up as if she hadn't heard him and dusted the seat of her pants. He fell silent and just watched her profile out of the corner of his eye. Sakura had grown up a lot since their Ninja Academy days, from the sniveling little girl he had met in this park to the strong and powerful chuunin next to him. "Sakura?"

Sweeping a lock of her pink hair behind her ear, she turned to look at him and offered him a small sad smile. "Chiyo-baa-sama and I teamed up against Sasori and he poisoned me. Thankfully I had just enough antidote. That's the condensed version of it. He gave us some crucial information as our...my...reward. Regarding Orochimaru. And well...wherever Orochimaru is hiding, Sasuke will be there." Shikamaru resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the mention of Uchiha, Right now, she was venting and needed someone to listen. And as troublesome as it was, listening was one of the things he was good at. He was here to be her friend. No more. No less. "But with Kaka-sensei out of commission for the time being, we'll be needing a temporary captain for our mission. Tsunade-shishou is looking for one as we speak." She sighs again and stretches her hands in the air, "I just hope it's someone easy to get along with. Naruto is already a handful to mind after."

That was when he noticed how tired she really looked. Her eyes seemed a little duller and her cheeks hardly had any color in them. Deciding he had heard enough of her story, he stood up as well and offered his hand to her. She looked at him in confusion and he sighed. "You need your rest. Come on, I'll walk you home."

She hesitated but took his hand. "Thank you."


End file.
